Date:21/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/21/stories/2008052158940300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Many elevators have no licence”

K. Lakshmi

About 50 %
of complexes still use collapsible elevators

CHENNAI: The government must take stringent measures to ensure safety in lifts and to prevent accidents such as the one in which a 17-year-old boy died in East Tambaram on Tuesday, according to experts.

Former Electrical Inspectorate official Kasi Viswanathan said that about 40 per cent of the lifts in the city were being operated without licence.

Several of them violated the provisions in the Tamil Nadu Lifts Act 1997, such as provision of emergency lights and alarm facility. Many of them were being operated without an operator, which is mandatory, and back-up facility during power failure to ensure safety. About 50 per cent of the apartment complexes still use collapsible elevators that were banned as per the Act and seek permission for more time to replace them.

They cite financial constraint as a major reason for not installing new elevators, he said.

Highlighting the requirements to operate elevators, he said the manufacturers must seek permission to erect the elevators in a particular building and obtain licence to operate it. The licence for working elevators must be renewed every year.

Former national president of Institution of Valuers C.H.Gopinatha Rao said a large number of about 10,000 elevators in the city were being operated without licence in spite of the Electrical Inspectorate’s recent warning of severe action against those violating the Act.

Frequent inspections of the facilities should be made to check violations.

The department, however, cited manpower shortage for its inability to conduct such inspections frequently, Mr.Rao added.